Knowledge concerning audience consumption of media content allows content providers to tailor content to a specific audience and enables advertisers to target the specific audience likely to view a particular type of media content. Audience measurement information, such as media content ratings and/or other metering information, is typically generated by collecting tuning records and/or other exposure information from a group of statistically selected households. In many situations, a statistically selected household is provided a data logging and processing unit, referred to herein as a “home unit,” which measures media content exposure for the household.
In a typical procedure for installing the home unit in a particular household, the household is first selected for recruitment and invited to participate in an audience measurement panel. If the household agrees to participate, a representative of a media measurement entity, such as an interviewer, visits the household to explain the requirements for participating in the audience measurement panel. If the household agrees to these requirements, an agreement is executed between the panel members of the household and the media measurement entity. The media measurement entity then arranges to install the home unit in the household, possibly through a subsequent visit by a field technician. Upon termination of the household's participation in the panel, a representative of the media measurement entity, such as another field technician, returns to remove the meter from the household.
Many modern media devices, such as set-top boxes, personal computers, etc., employ one or more media handlers (e.g., such as Microsoft Corporation's Windows Media Player, RealNetworks's RealPlayer, etc.) to process media content into a form suitable for presentation by an output device. Additionally, many modern media devices also include digital rights management technology to enable a device user to access protected media content. In particular, a conventional digital rights management client is capable of processing rules included in a license agreement associated with the protected content to determine whether a media handler is allowed to access and present the protected content.